The present invention relates to an improved hopper and agitator assembly for an ice dispenser, in which a pair of side by side rotary agitators are in the hopper.
In the food and beverage service industries, it is desirable to provide means for conveniently dispensing a quantity of ice, for example into a glass to facilitate service of ice water and cold beverages to customers. The means usually comprises an ice dispenser, which for commercial applications includes a hopper for storing a quantity of crushed, cracked, flaked or cubed ice, and an icemaker for manufacturing ice for the hopper. A thermostat in the hopper in proximity to the point of entry of ice sense the level of ice and controls operation of the icemaker, and an agitator means in the hopper agitates the mass of ice. An opening in the hopper enables ice to be removed from the hopper, for example by a dispensing mechanism that is actuable to permit a flow of ice through the opening, and the agitator means is operated during dispensing to assist in urging ice bodies therethrough. The agitator means also may be operated periodically for the purpose of preventing congealing or agglomeration of ice bodies in the hopper.
Dispensing mechanisms for hoppers may be of any desired type. Several systems are known for dispensing ice in predetermined quantities. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,269, for example, a vertically oriented delivery chute for ice has one or more control elements that are selectively insertable into the chute to correspondingly adjust the amount of ice delivered by a concurrent opening of a lower closure member of the chute. A storage hopper for ice is located above the chute, and contains an agitator for assisting in refilling the chute.
In some cases, gate type dispensers are used to dispense ice. Such dispensers usually comprise a gate that is movable to uncover a dispensing opening in a hopper for as long as it is desired to dispense ice through the opening, usually into a chute extending downwardly to an ice outlet from the chute. One particularly advantageous gate type dispenser is disclosed in Miller et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,824, assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Ice dispensers that have a single dispensing mechanism can serve only one user at a time. Where a greater service rate is required, for example to simultaneously provide ice to two or more users, two or more such dispensers must be employed, which adds considerable expense to the operation. Consequently, ice dispensers have been developed that have a plurality of dispensing stations. A hopper of such a multiple station dispenser has a corresponding plurality of discharge openings, each of which opens into an associated chute for conveying ice to a station. A dispensing mechanism is associated with each opening and chute to control a flow of ice bodies therethrough, and may be located either at the opening or at a lower end of the chute.
Conventionally, such multiple station ice dispensers have a single rotary agitator in the hopper. The agitator has radially extending arms, and during a dispensing operation is rotated to urge ice bodies in the hopper through the hopper openings to assist in deliver of ice. Advantageously, the ends of the arms sweep closely past the opening to maximize the force with which ice bodies are urged through the openings. If the hopper is of generally square cross section, the agitator may be made to have a diameter sufficiently large that the ends of its arms will sweep sufficiently close to all of the openings, even when the openings are toward opposite ends of the hopper front side. However, if size limitations imposed on the ice dispenser are such that the length of the hopper across its front is relatively large in comparison with its width from front to back, then the maximum diameter of the agitator will be limited to be no greater than the width of the hopper, and therefore much less than the length of the hopper. Under this circumstance, the ends of the agitator arms will only be able to sweep closely past any openings located medially along the hopper front wall, but not closely past any toward opposite ends of the front wall. The agitator therefore will not be able to sufficiently assist movement of ice bodies through the openings at opposite ends of the front wall, and ice will not be uniformly delivered to all of the stations.